The Finding
by Josephine Rayne
Summary: Alternate ending to Missing Persons ...Completed!


  
  
  
Disclaimer- I do not own In A Heartbeat  
  
The Finding  
  
Alternate ending to Missing Persons  
  
(Val is nineteen and is a freshman at NYU)  
  
Val sat quietly in her dorm room, typing her paper for her American history class. She checked her watch, 5:30. She couldn't wait to see Tyler. The couple had planned to meet for coffee and then met Hank later on. Val wished they all had went to the same collage, but seeing them once in awhile was better then nothing.  
Caitie went to a school nearby Kingsport so she and her one year old daughter Ashlynn could be close to Jamie who was a senior. Hank went to Princeton so Val often saw him on weekends and Tyler went to NYU along with Val and had a couple classes together.  
  
Val concentration was broken when the phone suddenly rang.  
  
"Hello?" she asked.  
  
"Val? It's Mom."  
  
"Hi. What's up?"  
  
"They found Brooke." she said simply.  
  
"What?!" Val almost screamed. "Is she.. is she..?  
  
"She's gone." Elizabeth started to cry, the truth had finally set in.   
  
"Oh, God." Val mumbled horrified and shocked. "I'm flying home, tonight." she said as she hung up the phone.  
  
Val started packing her plans forgotten.  
  
* * *  
"Thanks for coming with me, Tyler." Val said as she glanced out the rental car door.   
  
"No problem." he said. "I wish the news, was better, Val." he said looking into her blue sad eyes.  
  
"I always hoped, thought, that she was out there somewhere alright. Even after all these years." Val stated. " I can't believe that she's dead."  
  
"I know." he said kissing her on the forehead. "I know."  
  
* * *  
  
"How long was she..." Val asked later that night at the table. It was a question that had been nagging her.  
  
"The second day."   
  
"Do they know who did it? Why?"  
  
"They have no idea."  
  
  
  
"Where did they find her?"  
  
"The next county over." her mother tried to kept her voice steady. "In a wooded area."  
  
"Are they sure it's her?"  
  
Frank Linear nodded. Val had to ask these questions ,she needed to know.  
  
"It's not fair." Val said. "I miss her so much." she started to cry then. "Why would someone take her away from us?"  
  
It was a question she knew could not be answered.  
  
* * *  
  
"Caitie!" she replied ,happy to see her bestfriend. Caitie went over to her and hugged her. "I'm so sorry." she said. Val nodded. Then she noticed that Jamie was standing nearby holding Ashlynn.  
  
"Hi, Jamie." she said smiling at him. "And how's my goddaughter?" she replied taking the baby out of her father's arms.  
  
"Hey." Jamie replied. "I'm sorry too about Brooke. We all miss her."   
  
"I know, I do too." Val said. "Hank and Tyler are waiting to see you."  
  
* * *  
  
The funeral made it seem all to real to Val. She wanted to continue to pretend that Brooke could still be alive somewhere. She was glad that finally there was closure to the nightmare of Brooke being gone, but she wished that she was alive. She tried not to cry as she stood watching the casket go done and she was glad Tyler was holding her or she feared she would fall.  
  
At the house she helped with the food and consoled her parents. She talked with her friends and played with Ashlynn. She had to admit Caitie and Jamie made terrific parents., she thought letting her thoughts drift as she saw Jamie playing peek a boo with his daughter. When she went outside to get a breath of air. She thought about Brooke. Not the 12 year old she had been but the sixteen year old she would have been.  
She let out two single words. "It's over."  
  
A/N I wasn't going to have another chapter to this, because I wanted to have a realistic ending. The story is sad, I know, but I could not see a reasonable way Brooke could come back after 3 years completely unharmed, without making the reason she was gone completely un realistic, and in truth some families never know what happens to their missing kids, but since a lot of people have been asking me for another chapter, so I hope u enjoyed it.  
  
  



End file.
